The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, All Souls' Day, 02 November 2023
Wisdom 3:1-9 ><]]]]'> Romans 6:3-9 ><]]]]'> John 6:37-40
Photo by author, Jesuit Cemetery, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 21 March 2023.
As we remember today
all our departed loved ones
awaiting entry into your holy presence
O God in heaven,
we pray too that we may
always remember
your call for us to be good,
for us to work for justice
and truth,
for us to always remember
there is death,
there is judgment.
We are beings of forgetfulness,
Lord, and what a wonderful gift you
have given us with "re-membereing" -
for making someone long gone
still a part, a "member again"
of the present
when we who are living
in the "here" and "now"
remember them in our
prayers and sacrifices,
most of all, in our good deeds
because love, after all,
can reach in the afterlife!
The best way to
remember is to live
in the present moment
in Christ Jesus
who had assured us
of our salvation, that
not one of us he would lose
but raise to life on the last
day (John 6:39);
while here on earth,
may we start purifying ourselves
in your loving service, Lord,
to others, whether they are
in this life or in the afterlife
inasmuch as our lives
are connected with
one another to eternity;
and so, we pray for them,
we hope for them,
because we love them
in YOU, Jesus,
with YOU, Jesus,
and through YOU, Jesus
as we hope it is never too late
nor is it in vain to touch
their hearts wherever
they may be.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Solemnity of All Saints, 01 November 2023
Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14 ><}}}}*> 1 John 3:1-3 ><}}}}*> Matthew 5:1-12
Photo by author, Tagaytay City, 07 February 2023.
God our loving Father,
on this great feast of All Saints
those now enjoying your
Divine presence in eternity,
we pray for the gift
of a clean heart
in each of us
so we may see you
too like the Saints.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
Matthew 5:8
Oh yes, dear God,
if there is one thing we need
most these days is a clean heart,
a heart that is able to see
more the deepest truths of life,
of every person,
and of you;
out intellect is not enough
for us to see everything
because so often,
our minds are muddled
and darkened by malice
and selfishness;
our heart is the center
of our being,
cleanse our hearts of its
impurities especially of our ego
so it may harmonize our whole
body systems,
our person
so that what we know,
what we feel
is what YOU know,
what YOU feel too!
In Jesus,
with Jesus,
through Jesus,
take away our stony hearts
and give us natural hearts
that beat in firm faith in Christ,
fervent hope in Christ,
and unceasing charity in Christ!
Like all the Saints UP there
before you in heaven, Father,
make our hearts one in Jesus,
willing to go DOWN
like him on the
Cross to be "washed
and made white
in the blood of the Lamb"
(Revelation 7:14) on whom
our hope is based for
us to be pure like him
(1 John 5:13).
Amen.
Photo from en.wikipedia.org, painting by Fra Angelico called “The Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs”.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sunday in the Thirtieth Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 29 October 2023
Exodus 22:20-26 ><}}}}*> 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10 ><}}}}*> Matthew 22:34-40
Photo by Dra. Mai Dela Peña, Mt. Carmel, Israel, 2017.
The enemies of Jesus continued with their barrage of questions to trick him into saying something that could lead to his arrest and execution. After failing last Sunday, the Pharisees sent today an expert – a “scholar of the law” – to test him anew with the question:
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:36-40
For the second straight Sunday, Jesus not only responded to his enemies’ malicious questions with brief and brilliant answers but also taught them, including us today, with important lessons on discipleship.
Once again, Jesus is inviting us to have a wholistic view of life centered on God by healing the divisions within our hearts that are reflected in our broken relationships as individuals and family, church and community, and nation. How often do we reveal that same division in our hearts whenever we ask that same question 2000 years ago by the Pharisee, “which of the commandment in the law is the greatest”?
Photo by author, view from temple of Jerusalem, May 2017.
After receiving the Ten Commandments from God through Moses at Mount Sinai, the Jews dissected them into 613 instructions with 248 of these as positive laws every individual “should do” and the other 365 as negative laws everyone “should not do”.
Naturally, it was very difficult – if not impossible – for them to remember and observe these 613 precepts to guide them in their daily living so that their rabbis devised ways in which the Law could be prioritized with some categorized as “important” or “heavy” that should be followed more than those considered as “less important” or “lighter” in gravity. For example, laws pertaining to persons like parents are more important than those concerning animals that included about bird’s nest (Dt. 22:6-7)! Problem with this was when they circumvented the Law to give priority to lesser things that disregard the more important ones as Jesus pointed out so often to their religious leaders who have emphasized the sabbath by neglecting the human person like the sick.
Photo by author, St. Anne’s Church, Jerusalem, Israel, May 2017.
Another solution they have devised was to establish summary statements of the Law that could help put it all in perspective like “whatever is hateful to you, don’t do it to others”. Again, like in categorizing the Law, putting them into perspectives eventually led to their lost of essence because in our human experience, when many factors are weighed into our daily life, the way we see things are often narrowed and dimmed; then we begin making excuses and alibis to be exempted from our religious instructions. That is why Jesus “leveled up” the people’s perspectives in their views of the Law by telling them to shift their sights to higher level not just its letters but its spirit and source – God himself like the love enemies and the beatitudes.
Here we find the beauty and nobility of Jesus Christ’s answer to the scholar’s question by leading us all into the very essence of the Law which is love who is God too! Eventually on the Cross on Good Friday just like during the sermon on the mount, Jesus would show to everyone he was not only the fulfillment of the Law but the Law himself when he gave himself in love – to God our Father and to us his brothers and sisters. Today he deepens his teaching last Sunday that inasmuch as we have to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s like paying of taxes, then, we have to give our total self, our whole heart to God because that is what is due to God, our Maker and Master. To give our hearts to God is to always choosing to love God and love others as one loves one’s self.
Photo by author, garden beside St. Anne’s Church in Jerusalem, Israel, May 2017.
The moment we start categorizing or putting God’s laws into perspectives, into our own points of view, then we deviate from God himself and his plans. When we divide, separate and split the laws of God to find which could best suit us, then it becomes a DIY (do-it-yourself) Christianity where we choose laws applicable to us and disregard the rest we find difficult, calling them as outdated and conservative like divorce, contraceptives, and abortion.
In summarizing the commandments into the law of love, Jesus is inviting us today to welcome him into our hearts to let him alone dwell and reign over us so that when we are confronted with any issue and dilemma or confusion in life, we resolve them in the light of Christ which is always love. Letting Jesus reign in our hearts is choosing to find him in the other person we must respect and love and care.
Photo by author at Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, May 2017.
To choose Jesus and his love is to always choose the human person above material things and even with one’s self. And to choose Jesus and his love is choosing his Cross too because he said there is no greater love than to offer one’s self for another. The true sign that we have really loved is when we love somebody more than ourselves like Jesus!
It is difficult and even insane as St. Paul declared “we are fools for Christ” (1 Cor. 4;10) because anyone who loves like Jesus who loves God with one’s total self and loves others like one’s self is crazy in the world’s point of view and standard. It has always been the way of Christianity ever since, always suspected as a threat to the ways of the world because the ways of Christ and his disciples are opposite the ways of the world as St. Paul explained to the Thessalonians “who received the word in great affliction, with joy in the Holy Spirit” (1 Thes. 1:6).
When I was still a young priest giving Marriage Encounter weekends to couples, I used to ask them this question: when husband and wife have an LQ or “lover’s quarrel”, who should make the first move to say sorry and be reconciled?
Many couples laugh, saying it should be the man first while men claim it must be ladies first. Still others reason out it should be the one who had sinned.
My answer: whoever has more love to give must be the first to make the move to reconcile because whoever has more love should love more!
The more we love, the more we are able to love because love is infinite like God. It is the only thing that will remain in the end because God is love. His laws are his expressions and manifestations of his love expressed in his compassion being a personal God relating with us through men and women around us (first reading). His laws fulfilled as love in the person of Jesus Christ light and guide our path in life often darkened by sin and imperfections. Choose love always and you shall never get lost! Amen. Have a lovely long weekend!
Photo by author, Pater Noster Church, Jerusalem, the Holy Land, May 2019.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 22 October 2023
Isaiah 45:1, 4-6 ><}}}}*> 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5 ><}}}}*> Matthew 22:15-21
Photo by author, Jerusalem, May 2017.
We are now getting closer toward the end of our liturgical calendar with our gospel scenes of Jesus still at the temple area in Jerusalem where his enemies were growing more intense in banding together to trap him for his arrest and crucifixion.
Many times, that same die-hard religious conceptions of the Lord’s enemies continue to distort our way of Christian living today. First of these is the apparent division between the realms of the world or Caesar and of God and his kingdom.
The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech. They sent their disciples to him with the Herodians saying, “Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin. He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”
Matthew 22:15-16, 17-21
Photo by Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images in Laoag City, 08 May 2022.
It’s election fever again in the country (does it ever end?) when talks on the separation of the Church and the state abound in every corner of campaigns and discussions. What is very funny is despite everyone’s insistence of such separation, candidates keep on going to every church and chapel of all faith to meet their religious leaders and followers who in turn endorse some of them!
Then and now, the division was more clearly in our hearts than in religion and political life. Despite everyone’s endless quoting of the Lord’s declaration to “repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”, we remain more divided as a people and individuals right in our hearts where the first casualty is Jesus Christ. Then us and our loved ones.
The way of God as Jesus had shown and taught us is not found in opposing civil and religious or spiritual realms of life but in giving ourselves for the good of others in all areas of life, first to God and everything follows. Jesus Christ came to the word to heal our divided hearts, to make us whole again (and be holy) by showing us how we are all one in God, our origin and end. St. Francis of Assisi saw this unity of God’s creation and was so central in his life and teachings that he was able to literally live out the gospel values of both material and spiritual poverty.
Photo by author, Jerusalem, May 2017.
There are no divisions between the material world and the spiritual world because everything is created by God, came from God and will ultimately end in God. “Caesar” is everything of the world we so often give more emphasis in life, more attention and more focus. Primary is our own self as we consciously and unconsciously stamp with the image and inscription of “Caesar” as we try to hide and remove God’s image in us.
See how Jesus in many instances did not bother himself with our worldly affairs like being a judge to divide the share of inheritance of feuding brothers (Lk. 12:13-15) or of James and John asking him to have them seated at his sides when his glory comes (Mk. 10:35-45) because those things separate us from God and each other.
One tragedy of Christ’s time that continues today is when we the supposed religious leaders and guides are divided within each of us, so concerned with our own pride and other priorities in life like fame and wealth. Forgive us your priests and bishops whose lifestyle and way of relating to others betray like the Pharisees who and what is first in our lives.
Keep in mind how the Pharisees were not supposed to have anything that bears semblances of idolatry in the temple area like the Roman coin with image and inscription of the Caesar considered as god and emperor by the Romans. We priests and bishops still have that “Roman coin” today in the form of social media especially Facebook that show and prove more than ever how we are a church for the rich and not of the poor no matter what the gospel and documents say. What a scandal of our time to find priests and bishops shamelessly posted on social media always present, readily available especially for funeral Masses of the rich but never or so rare with the poor! These only prove to the people of the existence of the great divide among us Jesus had supposedly healed more than 2000 years when churchmen continue to play these days the very game of the Pharisees, scribes, chief priests and elders of Christ’s time.
Photo by author, Jerusalem, May 2017.
When we examine world history, it has actually felt easier for us to divide our lives into the material and spiritual realms by giving what is due and proper to each one. This has been the way of the world especially in the past 300 years at the start of the Industrial Revolution that resulted in so many inventions and scientific breakthroughs that have spawned various thoughts and philosophies.
On the outside or in the realm of Caesar, we seem to be better with more technologies and affluence but as persons, we have remained lost and more hurting inside that drive many into suicides and depression. How ironic when we are supposed to be better, crimes against human persons get worst these days with wars and atrocities still happening. Life may had drastically improved especially in the fields of medicine and communications but the gaps among us peoples have grown wider especially these last 20 years known as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” characterized by digitization and robotics that include Artificial Intelligence or AI. Like in the parable of the wicked tenants, we have usurped everything from God, even our very lives and the world itself.
Of course, the obligations to Caesar and to God are radically different: to the state we pay taxes, but to God we give our undivided hearts, our total being. This is what Isaiah told us in the first reading that everything in history is directed by God for the good of his people. He is the God of history. Let no one mistake any god for God because “I am the Lord, there is no other” (Is.45:6).
When Jesus asked his enemies to show him the coin that pays the census taxes, he is also asking us this Sunday to bare our hearts before him to let him heal us of the divisions within that are reflected by the many wars and divisions in the world. The deepest divide within us in this time is when we live and act like the Pharisees and Herodians with insincere hearts living a big lie of living in “accordance with the truth” (Mt. 22:16).
Let me end this reflection with those beautiful words by St. Paul in our second reading today:
We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father, knowing, brothers and sisters oved by God, how you were chosen. For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-5
Photo by author, Church of St. Anne in Jerusalem, May 2017.
So lovely! St. Paul is also talking to us today, assuring us how despite our many sins, of being slaves of Caesar and other gods like the Thessalonians who were pagans before, we too were willed by God to be called as his children in Jesus Christ.
We in the Church are a people despite our many flaws and imperfections especially us your priests were called out of sin and darkness to be God’s own people, beloved children. He has given us life in the Holy Spirit that when we look back in our lives, we are convinced in our hearts it was him who worked in us in the realm of material world. God has always been the “invisible hand” leading us when we felt so down and lost, defeated and almost dead. Here we are, still alive and forging on amid the many difficulties we encounter within and outside us.
When we cooperate with the grace of God and focus more on him than to the many Caesars, when we live in faith in Christ, laboring in his love for others, God becomes more present in our material world, enabling us to endure further life’s challenges in hopes that Jesus Christ will come again. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Twenty-Eighth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 19 October 2023
Romans 3:21-30 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Luke 11:47-54
Photo by author, Makati sunset from Antipolo City, August 2022.
Your words today,
O God, invite us to look
deeper into your "righteousness"
which is beyond measure
for it is your way of being God -
your are kindness,
your are righteousness,
your are uprightness
that you justified us all
by acquitting us of our sins through
your Son Jesus Christ.
It was not that simple,
Father, when after you have
justified us in Jesus,
you went further in making us
a new creation in Christ
by setting us free from
the bondage of sin.
And there lies the beauty
and challenge of your righteousness:
you have made everything possible
for us to be better persons assured of
heaven but are we willing to take
and treasure that gift that calls
for commitment and responsibility?
What occasion is there then for boasting? It is ruled out. On what principle: That of works? No, rather on the principle of faith. For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of law… for God is one and will justify the circumcised on the basis of faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
Romans 3:27-28, 30
Forgive us, God,
for being so proud,
of putting too much premium
on economic achievements
as benchmark of success;
forgive us for being so proud
of being able to do
and have everything
in this world forgetting
that the entire humanity is
utterly dependent on you for
salvation and fulfillment and life;
most of all, that nothing we do is
accomplished apart from your
grace, Father.
Keep us humble and simple,
keenly awaiting Christ's daily coming
so we may walk with him
and lead others to him too
unlike the scribes and Pharisees
who have "taken away the key of
knowledge, refusing to enter
God's kingdom and worst, stopped
those trying to enter" (Lk. 11:52).
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist, 18 October 2023
2 Timothy 4:10-17 <*[[[[>< + ><]]]]*> Luke 10:1-9
Painting of “Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin” by Flemish painter Roger van der Weyden (1400-1464); photo from en.wikipedia.org.
Merciful Father,
thank you for sending us
St. Luke the Evangelist
whose feast we celebrate today:
a physician,
an artist,
and a disciple of your Son
Jesus Christ.
"The Lord appointed seventy-two disciples
whom he sent ahead of him in pairs
to every town and place
he intended to visit"
(Luke 10:1).
Regardless of our state
in life, we, too, like St. Luke
are called to preach
and write the gospel of
Jesus Christ with our
lives,
with our silent witnessing
of his glory and humility,
kindness and firmness,
art and humanity,
intimacy in prayer
and most especially,
special concern for
women and children
until now so abused in
in so many homes
and in every nation.
Help us, dear Jesus,
to be like St. Luke,
a physician
for this world so sick
with wars and other
inhumanity to one another
perhaps due to our lack of
genuine love and respect
for women; what a joy to
read and pray St. Luke's
gospel account teeming
from the very start with those
wondrous stories of Mary
and Elizabeth who brought
us into the New Testament
with their sons!
Help us imitate St. Luke
as a true physician
who accompanied
until the end his mentor
St. Paul the Apostle:
"Beloved: Demas, enamored
with the present world,
deserted me and went to Thessalonica,
Crescens to Galatia,
and Titus to Dalmatia.
Luke is the only one with me"
(2Timothy 4:10).
O God,
how painful to think
everybody is saying that
the world population has to be controlled
when so many among us everywhere
are suffering alone,
dying alone?
Let us realize like St. Luke
Jesus Christ's declaration that
"The harvest is abundant but the
laborers are few" (Lk. 10:2)
that we may go too to your abundant
harvest to heal and console,
comfort and assure the many people
in pain and suffering.
Amen.
St. Luke,
Pray for us!
Photo by author, La Trinidad, Benguet, 12 July 2023.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Twenty-Seventh Week of Ordinary Time. Year I, 12 October 2023
Malachi 3:13-20 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Luke 11:5-13
Photo by author, Laiya, San Juan, Batangas, 2022.
Forgive us, Father,
when prayers confuse us
that we sin more against you
like those people mentioned
by your prophet Malachi
in the first reading today:
You have said, “It is vain to serve God, and what do we profit by keeping his command, and going about in penitential dress in awe of the Lord of hosts? Rather must we call the proud blessed; for indeed evildoers prosper, and even tempt God with impunity.”
Malachi 3:14-15
Continue to teach us
more about prayer,
suffuse us in the light
of the Holy Spirit
so we may be more
pliant and docile to
your will, loving Father;
empty us of our pride
and fill us with Jesus
so that we may
know him more clearly,
love him more dearly,
and follow him more closely
daily.
Let us realize that
you alone, O God,
whom we must solely desire
in our prayers that is
why we must persist
and persevere (Lk. 11:9-10)
because
when we have you,
then we have everything!
May we keep in mind
that prayer is a relationship,
O Lord, not a transaction
to have things;
may we realize
that prayer changes
the person
not the situation;
most of all,
prayer is more of
listening to you
than of us speaking
for you listen always
to our pleas and
prayers; you are so good
and so loving,
God, that you want
only the best for us
we never realize
because we are so
occupied with ourselves
in prayer
not with you.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday in the Twenty-Seventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 10 October 2023 Jonah 4:1-11 Luke 11:1-4
Photo by author, sunflower farm, La Trinidad, Benguet, 12 July 2023.
Today I pray dear God
our loving Father for all
my fellow worriers who are like me,
always anxious of everything,
afraid of chaos and disorder,
afraid of failing,
lacking in complete trust in you.
Like Martha in today’s gospel,
we are anxious snd worried of many things
because we forget that only you,
O God,
is the only one needed.
Many times I am like Jonah your prophet who believes more in myself, judgmental of others without realizing that whatever mission you send us to is all your work, using us only as your mouth to speak, hands to care and reach out to those weak and sick, feet to stand for what is true, just and good.
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.
Jonah 3:3-6
When we worry so much,
we hurt others too because
that is when we underestimate them,
when we put them in a box
with categories removing
every chance to become better
like how Jonah perceived the Ninivites
or Martha with Mary.
How wonderful
that every time this happens,
you surprise us Lord with
the most unexpected happening
like when the Ninevites proclaimed
a fast and put on a sackcloth,
when Jesus praised Mary in
choosing him over everything
and everyone.
Keep us simple
and humble, Jesus,
with a lot of humor
like Jonah even if your joke
is always on us so that
we may let go
of life's many
trials and difficulties.
Amen.
A video I have taken using my iPhone during our visit to this sunflower farm in La Trinidad, Benguet last 12 July 2023.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 08 October 2023
Isaiah 5:1-7 ><}}}}*> Philippians 4:6-9 ><}}}}*> Matthew 21:33-43
Photo by author, San Juan, La Union, 25 July 2023.
A good friend recently came home from a 20-day Marian pilgrimage in Europe. I told him to get some rest and avoid reading the news, “Huwag ka munang magbasa ng balita baka masayang nalanghap mong hangin sa Europe.” He replied that with the very reliable internet service in Europe, they were all updated with the things happening in our country. He added, “parang ayaw ko nang magpunta sa Europe, lalo lang ako naaawa at nahihiya sa Pilipinas.”
Very true.
I rarely travel abroad but with what I have been reading and hearing especially from those visiting Japan and Singapore, the more I feel sad and hopeless for our country the Philippines. At least, God comforts us once in a while in sports like the recent golds in the Asian Games courtesy of EJ Obienna in pole vault, Annie Ramirez in jiu-jitsu, and Gilas Pilipinas in basketball. Aside from sports, nothing good seems to come from the news. Even the newscasts these days are depressing with robots “complementing” sportscasters.
Photo of a vineyard in Southern California by Dra. Carol Reyes-Santos, MD, 01October 2023.
Our readings this Sunday seem to speak of us Filipinos and the Philippines which is like a wonderful vineyard planted by the Lord, especially when we think of our vast, fertile lands and long coastlines with rich bodies of water but we have to import our food, from rice to galunggong. What a shame that our chicharon producers import pig backfat from the tiny island of Taiwan?! Like Isaiah, we find ourselves asking what happened to our country?
Let me now sing of my friend, my friend’s song concerning his vineyard. My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside; he spaded it, cleared it of stones and planted the choicest vines; within it he built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press. Then he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes.
Isaiah 5:1-2
The vine and wine are important signs widely used in the Old Testament and in the gospel accounts by Jesus. In Isaiah’s writings, the vineyard represented Israel as the chosen people of God, so loved and cared for, saved from Egypt and gifted with a land flowing with milk and honey. Despite these blessings, Israel repeatedly turned away from God with their many sins of infidelity that continued in the time of Jesus Christ who borrowed and perfected this parable of the vineyard of the Lord to make it timely in every generation.
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
Matthew 21:33-39
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2023.
For the second straight Sunday, Jesus preached again at the temple area of Jerusalem and addressed this lesson to his enemies, the chief priests and elders of the people trying to find a probable cause to have him arrested.
See how this parable of the wicked tenants very similar with Isaiah’s but at the same time speaking a lot of ourselves and of our time, of how we have become like those wicked tenants taking the “vineyard” as totally ours like our body and country, arguing it is mine or ours that we can do whatever pleases us. Like those tenants, we have claimed of not belonging to God nor anyone at all, that we can do whatever we want because we are the owners of ourselves and the world. “It is my body, it is mine” and none of your business kind of thing.
How often we hear others claiming “this is my body, this is mine; therefore, I can do whatever I want with my body” like abort a baby, take contraceptives, or have a sex change, have those tattoos and body piercings? And we have spread this line of thinking to our environment with road rage spreading like a pandemic while bigger countries are grabbing territories ironically from their smaller neighbors.
The most tragic way of thinking that underlies this “mine mentality” is how so many of us have accepted – consciously and unconsciously – that most untrue statement of all that God is dead. Many would say they believe in God when actually what they mean is they know there is God and so often, they play that God, too. Pope Benedict XVI described it as “totalitarianism of relativism” when we see everything relative, no more morals and morality because we have made ourselves the measure and standards of everyone and everything – because, the “vineyard” belongs to us.
Photo of a vineyard in Southern California by Dra. Carol Reyes-Santos, MD, 01 October 2023.
More sad is the fact that we are beginning to see what happens next to us and the world with these things happening like families and relationships disintegrating, climate change and threats of wars, and more emptiness among us.
But, it is not that bad after all. Jesus not only updated Isaiah’s parable of the vineyard to speak to us in the present but also to promise us of a greater future. Notice the blessing and threat he used.
“What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?” They answered him, “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.” Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”
Matthew 21:40-43
Once again, Jesus Christ’s parable asked a question to involve his hearers, including us today, in the story because the truth is, he had involved himself with us in his coming and eventually in his Passion, Death and Resurrection.
Unlike in Isaiah’s parable of the vineyard, God is distinct from the vineyard; but in Christ’s parable, we are in fact the vineyard of the Lord because Jesus is one with us being the son of the owner sent to gather his share of produce.
That is the good news, the blessing this Sunday and while there is also the threat of the vineyard being handed over to better tenants, there is the promise of better produce to be shared and enjoyed in all eternity, in heaven. There will always be darkness and difficulties in this life caused by selfish, arrogant, and self-righteous people who feel they own everything in this world. Many times, we too have wasted God’s bountiful blessings to us like our talents and abilities not put into use or never harnessed; health taken for granted and separation from our loved ones. Jesus Christ had died for us to repair ourselves and our relationships. Let us grab this opportunity today of taking care of the Lord’s vineyard, of sharing his blessings.
Most of all, like what St. Paul asked us in the second reading, let us be witnesses to others by remaining faithful to God, striving for “whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious” (Phil. 4:8).
Last Thursday was World Teachers Day. I told our teachers during Masses in our university this week to remember St. Augustine’s final lesson to Deogratias his deacon preparing candidates for baptism: “The teacher is the lesson himself/herself.”
Beautiful. If we are the Lord’s vineyard, every time we produce good fruits, every time we share these fruits with others, then we become signs of hope of Christ’s presence among us. That is the most important lesson we can share with others especially in these times of darkness. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Memorial of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, Virgin, 05 October 2023
Nehemiah 8:1-4, 5-6, 7-12 <[[[[>< + ><]]]]'> Luke 10:1-12
Photo by author, sunrise at Camp John Hay, Baguio City, 12 July 2023.
Every day we tell you,
dear Father,
"thanks be to God!"
but what do we really
thank you for?
More than the gift of life,
the joy of a wonderful morning,
or when the universe simply
aligns with us that we get
what we prayed for,
what we worked for,
and what we like most
is the fact that you,
O God,
is speaking clearly
to us,
that you love us,
that you have forgiven us,
that you believe in us
as you send us forth to a
mission.
How beautiful to read
Nehemiah's account today
when your people after getting
back to Jerusalem from their
long exile in Babylon heard
anew your words proclaimed
from the Sacred Scriptures,
many cried even wept
because you have spoken to them
anew; how sad these days
we take your words for granted,
O God, after being proclaimed
in the Mass; many say "thanks
be to God" without realizing
its deep meaning,
its incomparable joy
of hearing your words
again, God.
Let us love your words,
O God; let us immerse ourselves
in your words found in the
scriptures to cleanse us of
our impurities and see
one another as brother
and sister in you our Father;
most of all, let us open ourselves
to your word who became flesh,
Jesus Christ, and be transformed
to enflesh your words in this world
so empty of meaning
and direction,
most especially of peace.
Let us listen to your words
always, dear God,
and be witnesses of
your speaking to us.
Amen.
lordmychef.com 